At the beginning of the year, when I had just started the drama course, I thought of some interesting personalities and habits for my characters as soon as we thought of some ideas. Although I had some good ideas to start with, those ideas have changed as the piece has progressed.
Originally, I decided that the Bully I portray throughout the performance was going to be loud and boisterous, and she didn’t care if she was caught because she would be more than happy with being excluded for a few days. This seemed like a good idea to start with. When my group created more scenes of the play, I decided my character would be different than I first planned. Now, the Bully is still mean to people she doesn’t like but she is less upfront about it, and feels almost ashamed when she is caught by the teachers or other students who witnessed her bullying other people. I took a while to think about what her background could be, what was going on at home when she wasn’t in school and I finally decided that her parents have split up, and that in itself has affected the way she behaves in school. She lives with her mum at home but her mum is out every night, and is almost never at home for her daughter, which also affects my character in many ways. When she is bullying people, although she loves doing it for the fun, she still tries to back down and not go too far so she doesn’t hurt people. However, because she used to bully people a lot more when the problems at home just started, people still seem to blame everything on her which makes her defensive.
While the character of the bully has changed quite a lot over the last few weeks, my other character, the vicar, has more or less stayed the same throughout. She isn’t really quiet and sad about having to control the funeral because she has a lot of experience, so her tone of voice is clear that she is used to the sad atmosphere. While she is saying her speech at each funeral, she stands tall and superior against the mourners stood around her. I change my accent a little when I am playing the vicar; she sounds more calm and caring with a softer accent than mine to show that she cares about and has empathy for the family around her who have just lost a loved one.
I find it easy to change my character in each scene by changing my attitude and voice; I think it is just something that comes naturally to me.
